Tuesday on the blog means that it is time to share some links to things that I have read and found interesting over the past week. To help make sense of the links, I have grouped them in the following categories: Church and Ministry Thought & Practice; Cross-Sector Collaboration; Leadership Thought & Practice; Millennials; Neighbor Love; Stewardship; and Vocation. I hope you enjoy this edition of the links.

If you are preaching on Psalm 69 and/or Matthew 10 from the Revised Common Lectionary, please check out this week’s important post from friend and professor Rev. Dr. Karoline Lewis, “Not Peace but a Sword.” Karoline powerfully concludes this week, “When you preach peace, Dear Working Preachers, expect a sword. Because God’s peace expects justice. God’s peace asks for righteousness. God’s peace demands value for and regard of all. And God’s peace is what will save us all.”

Friend, colleague, and pastor Juliet Hampton shared this look and report from Dan Simon at CNN about how “Three faiths could worship at one property.” I am excited to share this especially since it is about a local “Tri-Faith Initiative” in Omaha, Nebraska.

Perhaps the most fun post I read this week came from Pastor and blogger Joanna Harader, who inspired by Father’s Day wrote a tribute to her husband, but also to all spouses of female pastors in, “Wits’ Ends Day: You Might be a Rev. Gal Spouse If…” Check out her list, it’s pretty great. Thanks to my wife Allison and friend Rebecca Sullivan, both whom are pastors who, appropriately shared this with me and Rebecca’s husband, Trip.

Leadership Thought & Practice
Eric Garton wrote back in April in the Harvard Business Review, that “Employee Burnout is a Problem with the Company, Not the Person.” What do you think? I tend to agree, and see burnout often as a byproduct of an unhealthy culture or unreasonable (or unsaid and assumed) expectations. I wonder what implications this acknowledgment might have for your workplace? Organization? Church or congregation?

Millennials

Here’s one example of doing just this, earlier this year. I was attending a stewardship conference in Washington, D.C. So, of course Allison & I used a few extra hours after the conference to do some sight seeing and exploring to sights we had not seen in D.C. before, including the International Spy Museum.

The Economist ran an article last week in its “Gulliver” column looking at how and why, “Younger business travelers are more likely to extend trips for fun.” They go on to make the case that firms should encourage them to do so. I would argue too, that all workplaces, organizations, congregations/churches, etc., should encourage their leaders and employees to do this. It allows for much needed time for vacation, growth, learning, thinking, new ideas and imagination, and personal health, to help avoid the dangers of burnout or closed thinking, for example. What do you think?

Over the weekend St. Paul Area Synod Bishop Patricia Lull shared a “Pastoral Message,” following the announcement of the verdict in the Jeronimo Yanez trial of the death of Philando Castile. Within this Bishop Lull asks the important and tough questions, “We have much soul work to do. Can we learn to listen to the frustration of the African American community and hear in it an authentic cry for justice at the most profound level? Can we take the hard, consistent steps that all of us need to take to regard each other across the lines of race and ethnicity and class by checking our unnamed assumptions and fears? Can we in the church hold ourselves to working step by step to dismantle the racism that structures too much of our communal life?” Please read this.

Stewardship
In case you missed them yesterday, I shared this week’s edition of “Preaching on Stewardship” with thought based on both the appointed readings by the revised common and narrative lectionaries. This week’s edition is dedicated to Pastor Chris Nelson.

Last week I shared part one of my parents’ recent journey to Namibia to attend the Lutheran World Federation assembly. Over the past week my mom’s entries for Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5 of their journey have been posted on the Collaboration Ministries website. Check them out and continue the journey with them.

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That will conclude this week’s edition of the links. I hope you have enjoyed them, and that you are enjoying the new rhythm to the blog. If you have ideas for me, please let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading and being part of the conversation, and blessings on your week! -TS